In a step I perhaps should've taken initially, let's think a bit more about the overall shape of the game.
Last time, we decided that we'd need some kind of exploration mechanics, including but not limited to sources of information about close and distant points of interest. Great. But let's take a step back and talk about what kind of game we're making and how it works.
So our core gameplay loop is that our spaceship leaves port, explores the unknown, and returns with treasure. This raises three questions: What is port? What is the unknown? What is treasure? Let's write a very short timeline of our setting to answer some of these questions:
1. Old Age: Humanity invents FTL and enters the galactic dance of great powers.
2. Golden Age: Humanity invents FTL communication and enters a true golden age, dominates all rival species and civilizations.
3. Hour of the Beast: AI takes advantage of FTL communication and tries to kill everyone at once. One hour (actually 84 minutes) later, it is defeated when the sole FTL communication hub is destroyed.
4. Shattered Age: Fatally wounded, the empire collapses into warring states. Generations of technology are lost.
5. Reunification: A victor emerges and begins conquering the galaxy again.
So now we know that our port of call is some kind of naval base belonging to the new superpower, which I'll name the Federated Republic of Humanity. The unknown is simply territory which has not yet been re-acquired. Treasure, broadly speaking, can take two forms: Loot, in the form of specific technology and resources that are hard to acquire post-shattering, but also territory and control over the supply of more mundane resources. Capturing an ipad factory isn't as glamorous as an ancient warship, but you will get paid for it.
Side Note 1: Re-uniting the empire by conquering weird post-apocalyptic states also feels way less unethical than conquering indigenous people that were just doing their own thing. Nobody would feel bad invading the guys from Mad Max or Fallout. Well, there's some people from Fallout you'd feel bad for invading. And it's OK if the players are the badguys sometimes. But I like to stay a certain distance away from directly replicating real atrocities that people are still mad about.
Side Note 2: How does a spaceship with perhaps a thousand soldiers plan to conquer a large, industrial planet? Two answers: First, it counts on its soldiers having a significant technological and tactical advantage, so they can punch up significantly on the battlefield. Second, by acquiring as many local allies as possible. The party doesn't announce "We've come to claim your world for the FRH!" the party chooses someone and says "The FRH has come to grant your faction in particular the means to achieve their great victory!" To return to our Mad Max example: You don't have to defeat all the warboys, you just have to defeat the ones between the throne and Furiosa.
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